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### Take a Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes: A Cultural Intelligence Training Experience for Law Enforcement

 August 2017 | Volume 10 | Issue 8

The Houston  Police Department (HPD) has over 5,000 sworn officers, over 1,000  civilian personnel, and serves a fast-growing population of around 2.3 million  people. Ranked the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston has seen  tremendous growth over the past 40 years. Its continuously changing demographic  makeup presents opportunities and challenges for public safety agencies.

With such diversity among its residents, it is no surprise that  Houston’s police department is a majority-minority department, with 53% of its  staff identifying as minority. Women make up 18% of its staff. Despite this  diversity, the department realized that it was not immune to cultural  misunderstandings and decided to invest in a different type of diversity  training.

The Outreach Cultural Intelligence Training, developed and executed by  Outreach  Strategists, gives officers the opportunity to learn from  each other, not just the trainers. The experiential, scenario-based training is  customized to meet the specific needs of the HPD, with the goal of highlighting  officers’ connections to the community through role-play. 

The half-day training simulates a community meeting in response to an  officer-involved shooting. Officers are separated into small groups and are  given individual roles to portray, such as a member of the victim’s family, a  representative from the media, a city councilmember, and a member of the police  department. The groups enact their own community meeting, and through the  process are forced to see themselves outside of just the role of law enforcement. 

“This is the first time that officers get the opportunity to  experience this; to walk in someone else’s shoes,” said Mustafa Tameez,  Outreach Strategists’ founder and managing director. “It gives them a deeper  understanding. We learned from it that officers want to have these  conversations in a safe space.” Tameez, whose father retired from a career in  law enforcement, says that this training is unique from other diversity  trainings in that participants lead the experience, not the trainers. “We make  sure that we never preach. We facilitate the conversation.”

          Alim Adatia, training instructor and former prosecutor, says that  while conversations about explicit and implicit bias are important, the  trainers don’t force that discussion on participants. “We understand that there  is a piece of this that needs to be had around bias. But introducing it in a  classroom format puts up barriers.” When participants play the role of the  media, the police officer, and the victims’ family member, they begin to  understand why a mother or a news reporter might react in a certain way at a  particular moment. This experience leads to conversations and discussions about  bias outside of the classroom.

*Outreach Strategists Trainer Alim Adatia, Houston Police Officer Tanika Tucker, Outreach Strategists Managing Director Mustafa Tameez, Houston Police Department Assistant Chief Charlie Vazquez, Outreach Strategists Trainer Richard Baker, Outreach Strategists Team Member Mandi Lovett*

For Officer Tanika Tucker, who started with the HPD as a civilian  employee 17 years ago, the training gave her a new respect for the media.  “Being a police officer, I had never spoken with anyone in the media, so this  gave me a different perspective.” She also shared that the training brought her  closer to her fellow officers, many of whom she had never met. “I didn’t know  anyone at my table and I was the only female. It was interesting for me.” 

Assistant Chief Charlie Vazquez, who has over 21 years of law  enforcement experience, says this training works because it is different from  any previous diversity trainings he has attended. “In previous mandatory  cultural diversity trainings, people would say they [the trainers] came off  accusatory,” he shared, “These [Outreach Cultural Intelligence] trainings make  officers consider the feelings of others—of victims’ families.” 

The trainings are not developed in a vacuum. The Outreach Strategists  team works closely with department leadership and community groups to determine  the best way to present the information to officers. One important factor is  ensuring that the training includes a history lesson. 

“Each training involves a custom video that gives historical information  about different areas in Houston,” said Tameez. “The video covers every  protected class within the city, including veterans. It covers the transitions  in the different neighborhoods [. . .] and we cover mental health issues as  well. We show census maps—1980, 1990, 2000, 2010—so you can see demographic  shifts.” 

Ultimately, Outreach Strategists hopes the trainings can help bring  about new levels of understanding between police and the communities they  serve. Richard Baker, founding partner and trainer, says, “I hope the training  creates this idea that there has to be an ‘us.’ It can’t be an ‘us’ versus  ‘them.’”

The training has been so well received that Outreach Strategists plans  to offer the training to community leaders in the future. “It’s all about  building the skill of being able to look at things from the other side,” said  Tameez. 

To learn more about the Outreach Cultural Intelligence training  program, visit http://www.outreachci.com/. 

Najla HaywoodManaging EditorCOPS Office

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